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where the Labour Party has begun to recruit, train and employ ‘professional organisers’.
Under the ‘Trainee Organiser Scheme’, as it is known, the Party recruits individuals who
spend time in the party and get ‘intensive training. If they are successful, they will have
the chance to work for the party as professional organisers until after the next general
election’ (Labour Party, 2003, p. 28). As with the attempts to improve the government’s
communications network, the strategy is to generally professionalise practice – i.e.
make it more efficient in achieving one’s objectives. A similar process is to be found in
Italy: party employees undergo a training period during which they learn the skills of
public speaking and appearing on television and their communication skills are
assessed.This is not only happening within Forza Italia; in a recent municipal election in
Bologna (2004) the Democratici di sinistra (formerly the Communist party) organised
training courses for activists and members. (See also Plasser & Plasser, 2002,
pp.306–310.)

As well as identifying who the professionals are, it is also critical to identify where they
fit in the organisational structure of political parties, and what they do. Are there
different kinds of professionals, some of whom play a more strategic role than others?
Have professionals taken key decision-making powers away from party bureaucrats?
Do they share responsibilities with them or do they defer to them? Do professionals
give shape to political ideas or do they alter the political ideas when they give shape to
them? Do they alter the political character of political parties?

Answers to questions such as these not only provide a deeper understanding of the
place of the professionals within political parties but also of the way political parties
have sought to change themselves in order to adapt to changing circumstances. In
effect, one begins to touch on the processes by which political parties become
The Professionalisation of Political Communication
professional in their search for elusive voters.
A final set of questions must relate to the degree to which such changes have impacted
on aspects of political communication. There may be at least two separate sets of
considerations here. On the one hand, practices in communication, including political
communication, may have changed in response to the availability and use of newer
technologies. In which case, those who can best use those technologies of
communication become key employees within political organisations. On the other
hand, and principally because political organisations rarely own or control the means of
communication, they turn to those who can best advise on their use. In this latter case,
one can think of examples that range from those who simply offer advice to politicians
on how to dress or deal with the media, to press officers who act as the point of contact
between political organisations and media organisations.

As with political consultants more generally, one could argue that there are many
reasons why such communication advisers are being used.Those reasons would range
from their particular skills, e.g. designing a web site, to their ability to help political
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